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Uber says it found one stolen file in self-driving dispute

AP Photo/Paul Sancya

Uber's lawyers told a federal judge on Wednesday that they've found at least one of the files Waymo, Alphabet's self-driving car unit, claims former employees stole before joining Otto, a self-driving tech company now owned by Uber, according to TechCrunch.

The file was found on the personal computer of Sameer Kshirsagar, and is the first such file—out of an alleged 14,000—Uber has admitted to locating.

Uber said it interviewed 85 current and former employees, has searched the computers of 10 employees, as well as the company's internal repositories for the stolen documents, but found nothing "substantive." Uber also argued that Waymo's delay in filing the lawsuit shows the documents aren't aren't crucial enough to merit the injunction Waymo is seeking.

On-going challenge: Anthony Levandowski, the Otto co-founder and former Alphabet employee at the center of the case, has exercised his Fifth Amendment right and declined to provide documents in his personal possession, making it difficult for Uber to conduct a thorough search.

Next: A hearing on the preliminary injunction request is set for May 3.

Pedestrian killed by self-driving Uber in Arizona

A pedestrian was struck and killed by a self-driving Uber in Tempe, Arizona, early Monday morning, according to ABC15. Tempe police said that the vehicle was in autonomous mode, though a safety driver was behind the wheel at the time of the crash.

Why it matters: The New York Times notes that this could be the first pedestrian ever killed by a self-driving vehicle. Uber says it's closely following its incident response process, though it declined to share more details about what that entails. The company has also paused its self-driving cars in all locations (Pittsburgh, Tempe, San Francisco and Toronto).

“Our hearts go out to the victim’s family. We are fully cooperating with local authorities in their investigation of this incident.”

— Uber spokesperson

Background: A key question as police continue to investigate the crash is why the safety driver was unable or failed to intervene.

An Axios analysis of California DMV accident reports last year showed that humans cause most accidents that involve a self-driving car.

According to NHTSA data, which was collected from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, 37,461 lives were lost on U.S. roads in 2016, an increase of 5.6 percent from calendar year 2015.